Originally Posted by kimah
If this question has been posted please point me in the right direction . . . What is the best airline for redeeming frequent flyer miles? For example, I've heard that Delta advertises 25,000 ff miles for a continental ticket but they are incredibly hard to come by. Typically you have to "spend" 50,000 miles. What are the airlines that are the easiest to actually get free tickets?
Hands down it is American Airlines with highly reliable sources.
That said there are a few thousand variables depending on where you travel and where you are based.I have been at this game for years and for today American gets 95% of my revenue for making a fair supply of saver award seats available for my mileage earned
I bank in a wide variety of programs for a rainy day and in the rare instance AA can not fill my needs for a market they don't fly or are sold out.
British Airways would be my next choice but ruled out for gouging on awards and excessive fuel surcharges and anything else they can pad including UK government taxes
I'm sure there will be those that disagree saying you can't beat Delta,Continental and Northwest for excellence in redemption
A slight nod to United but still grim still in comparison.
FYI I have redeemed many millions of miles and with one rare exception (of course Continental) have never used additional miles.Because of the ongoing pattern I dumped all my revenue business with them and burned my miles and fled the company and their aircraft forverer. Even after years of being sent complimentary One Pass gold elite status cards that were tossed in the garbage can.I would be a lifetime customer with them if they would play fair......